Nepal

Spanning five years, the focus of the CLARISSA programme in Nepal was on identifying the system dynamics of WFCL in Kathmandu’s Adult Entertainment Sector, and in the wider neighbourhoods where this sector is prevalent, with particular attention given to the informal economy, where the worst forms of child labour are most often found.

12 Participatory Action Research groups of children and business owners were formed in Nepal, each of which spent between 12- and 18-months generating evidence and trialling and learning from actions to reduce WFCL and its impact. The Action Research component made the CLARISSA programme unique in the child labour space because it generated evidence about the dynamics of WFCL from action as well as inquiry. In addition to Action Research, extensive participatory and qualitative research inquiries took place in Nepal, examining the lived experience of child labourers and the businesses in which they work.

In Nepal, CLARISSA has produced new knowledge about the Worst Forms of Child Labour in a number of key ways including: the varied nature of the adult entertainment sector and the socio-economic realities of small business owners in the sector; the ways in which business owners facilitate and support WFCL from a “psychological distance”; the fact that small business owners in the AES are often hiding what they do, limiting the support and bargaining power available to them and the use of sexual services to make food and drink businesses operationally viable.